CHICAGO—So seriously, people. We’re talking to those of you who curse the NBA’s age limit rule, call it “one-and-done” as if that were some sort of capital crime, screech about the injustice inflicted upon young basketball talents who must wait 12 whole months to be drafted as professionals.

These are the guys you think don’t need any time to mature and develop as basketball players? These are the guys you want intersecting with LeBron James and Dwight Howard and Derrick Rose after about 10 days of training camp?

Yes, these Kentucky players who were down two handfuls before even four minutes of their first serious college basketball game had passed, who missed 16 free throws and committed 17 turnovers and allowed Michigan State to run like it was October at Keeneland—they don’t need all this?

At the very least, they need another three dozen nights very much like the one that passed Tuesday night at the United Center, in the first game of the State Farm Champions Classic doubleheader, where top-ranked Kentucky fell from that precarious perch with a 78-74 loss to the second-ranked Spartans.

“I’ve got four months to get this right,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said, and so do the four Wildcats freshmen projected to be lottery picks in June, all of whom revealed to varying degrees how very much they’re not ready to play at the highest level of the game. Yet.

Forward Julius Randle was overwhelming at times, with 27 points and 13 rebounds. And at times he was overwhelmed, committing eight turnovers. Wing James Young scored 19 points, but shot 3-of-11 from 3-point range and missed the majority of his free throws. Shooting guard Aaron Harrison scored 3 points. His brother Andrew, the point guard, scored 11 points and made his only 3-pointer, but rung up a mere three assists.

Calipari said events such as this are great for college basketball, and “terrific for the teams. But it’s tough for a really young team.” So how tough would a back-to-backer in Oklahoma City and San Antonio be?

No, games such as this might be tough on the Wildcats, but they need them. They need to learn what works and what doesn’t, how much effort is demanded, how difficult success is to attain when there is someone really talented and determined seeking the exact same prize. There is so much they can gain from being embarrassed by their 0-10 start, the 32-44 halftime disadvantage, and then rallying from all that dysfunction to actually tie the game inside the final 5 minutes.

Calipari said he was “proud” to be trailing only by a dozen points at the break. “It should have been 20, and you all know it,” he said. There was a bit of fighting spirit and a whole lot of raw talent contained in that scoreline, and there was resilience in Kentucky’s ability to fight back in the second half to make it as close as it was.

With Michigan State playing a sagging defense—a hybrid of man-to-man and zone that sealed off driving lanes—Calipari junked his Dribble Drive Motion offense at halftime and mostly ran set plays, the majority of which were designed to establish Randle in the low post.

He was irresistible in those circumstances when he caught the ball and moved quickly, before Spartans coach Tom Izzo could send a double- or triple-team after him. Randle scored 23 points in the second half, more than half UK’s total. After the game, he was brought to the media room, but his performance left him drained and starting to cramp, so we never heard what he thought of all this.

It’s important to remember the No. 1 ranking the Wildcats carried into this college basketball season, whether it was bestowed by Sporting News or CBS Sports or USA Today or The Associated Press, was a prediction. It was not an evaluation.

This distinction is misunderstood by coaches first, but also by a fan or two here and there. Before the fact, the question is: How could Kentucky be the nation’s top team with so little experience? After the fact, like now, the question is: How could that team have been anybody’s No. 1?

Most every weakness MSU exposed in the UK rotation was fairly obvious in advance: the lack of cohesion resulting from Andrew Harrison’s preseason injury absences and the abundant youth; the need for an obvious perimeter defensive stopper; the uncertainty about how so many young players will handle adversity.

Here’s the thing, though: These were not the decisive issues.

These were the decisive issues:

— Transition defense. Michigan State scored 21 fast-break points to Kentucky’s two. “I guess we just didn’t get back,” said UK sophomore forward Alex Poythress. Calipari said too many of the Wildcats were “jogging.”

— Randle’s hesitation. Michigan State was able to steal the ball from him because he was not making the quick, sudden moves that turn defenders helpless. Randle is enormously strong and stunningly quick for a player his size. But if he’s standing still, he’s as vulnerable as your basic 6-9 guy.

— Offensive commitment. The Wildcats were too easily coerced into taking 3-pointers—some open, some challenged—even though they were not having success. They shot 60 percent on 2-pointers, but still tried 20 times from long range.

— Foul shooting. Free throw percentage can be the most overrated statistic in basketball, but not if that percentage is 55.6, and not if your team is getting fouled enough to attempt 36 in a game.

“I hope I’m in my office at 10:30 at night,” Calipari said, “and I hope they walk the 15 steps from their dorm to the practice gym and are working on it on their own. That’s what I hope.”

It’s part of the process of growing into a basketball player, a great basketball player. That doesn’t happen merely by walking out of high school and declaring for the draft. It takes some education.